When you think of a classroom Wiki what comes to mind? Perhaps you might picture your students using a Wiki to post their opinions on articles for Social Studies? Maybe a joint class project where several teachers and their classrooms collaborate their works and share their findings to compare and contrast? Or, maybe you would prefer that each student keep their own Wiki that they will develop over grade spans to track their learning processes?
I am under the opinion that technology is often taken for granted when it comes to working with the ELL students of any grade. The only technology related item I have ever observed students using (besides their cell phones at the HS level) is the IWB (Interactive White Board for those who don't know the acronym). And while I love the IWB and have used it many times for various lessons, I find that we rely on it way too often. And when our ELL students do get to use computers or iPads in the classroom it is usually for playing games for the duration of the lesson. I find this disheartening since there is so much possibility here!
I thinks it's about time we helped our ELL students to spread their web-wings and take a try at the Wiki. Keeping a classroom ELL Wiki is a great way to allow students more productive time on the computer/iPad while also helping them to develop other skills such as writing and syntax. It will also give them the opportunity to create something meaningful that they can look at out outside of the classroom as well, if able. Can you imagine the pride a student would have if he or she went home and was able to bring up their own Wiki entry for their parents to see? Magnificent!
10 Specific Uses of the Wiki in ELL:
1) Online Glossaries: Imagine for a moment that you are an ELL student who is having a difficult time remembering how to use a certain word much less can recall its meanings. Now, imagine that all the student has to do is log onto the classroom wiki and click on the Glossary that other students in his/her classroom have taken the time to create just for this purpose, viola! Problem solved! I have a wonderful lesson plan in mind where students are each given 5 or 6 words from the lesson unit. They then look these words up and (using their own definition and example sentence) enter into the classroom Wiki for other students to view. This would give your students practice with using a dictionary to look up the meanings, as well as requiring them to do some creative thinking when making new sentences, additionally they get in some typing/computer practice.
2) Online Study Community: Picture a similar situation as above. This time your students are trying to study for an upcoming exam but are nervous and unsure of what they need to know or if they can even study so much in such a short time frame. For the ELL student in regular content classrooms this can be especially true! You can easily help your students (those who are in the same classes together) study for their exam by having each of them divide their study guide into halves amongst themselves, they will then focus on taking notes on that particular area and post them up on a Wiki page made for that subject. This way they can post and share notes, studying together without actually having to worry about meeting up in a physical location.
3) Constructive Criticism: The Wiki can also be a wonderful tool for receiving constructive feedback from your teacher and your peers. Imagine you are an ELL student who has just written a report for your history class but your worried about your spelling and sentence structure. You can easily post your paper, or the portions that you are worried about, onto the Wiki (either anonymously or not) for feedback and correction. This can easily be done with other subjects as well! For instance, let's say that you have an avid artist or poet who would like to get an opinion on a piece they just completed, or your writing a story and need help putting together a plot or developing a story character, post it on the Wiki! Of course, you should have rules put into place...we can go into that in another post.
4) Student Portfolio: With Authentic assessment gaining a foothold in the world of ELL teaching it makes sense that something like a Wiki would have wonderful use as a student portfolio! As mentioned in number 3, the Wiki is a place where students can upload their works for others to view and review, it can also be used to store these pieces after they have been revised. You can assign each student their own page where examples of their classwork (both on and offline) can be displayed. If your school is wired for this sort of thing they can keep the same page throughout their student careers, adding to as they progress towards graduation. Authentic assessment is especially important for ELL students as it takes the standpoint of displaying what the student is capable of by using real life examples of their own work, not just test scores.
5) Writing Prompts: The Wiki can be a wonderful way to create daily writing prompts for your students, this is especially useful when helping your ELL students develop not just their writing skills but also their writing styles! A new writing prompt can be posted by you, the teacher, and students will be required to respond to it in some way, either through prose or poem. For younger students you could allow them to post whatever they can so long as they post something, for older students you could make it more challenging by setting a word maximum or word limit. In this way you can keep track of how your students are developing in both their writing skill, spelling, and vocabulary usage. Vocabulary development is especially important for the ELL student, the more vocabulary exposure and use they have, the better!
6) Collective Database: Let's say your students are completing a unit on famous faces in history. You can group your students up and assign them a famous individual with whom they will focus. After researching this individual they will then create a Wiki page for that person to include all of their basic information as well as any interesting facts they found out about them. They can upload pictures, quotes, and video ( if it's within the schools AUP). The students should also be required to create a list of any books they read and include links to websites that they referenced when doing their research. Being able to find references is a skill that all students (not just ELLs) can use throughout their education.Now you should have a nice collection of biographies on your classroom wiki for everyone to view.
7) Correctional Officer: Let's say that your ELL students have mastered a particular grammar form or vocabulary list and now it's time to practice. The teacher should create a paragraph, using a particular grammar structure or set of vocabulary that they have been studying, that is being misused and/or misspelled in some way throughout. You then post this paragraph asking for help in correcting it. The students mission? To correct as many mistakes as he or she can find and then re-post the paragraph with the corrections. Each student should make their own post. The teacher will then post the correct version at the end of the week for students to check their work with. This activity can be especially motivating as they want to see if they can beat the teacher at her own game!
8) Project Collaboration: A Wiki can also act as a way to keep track of collaborative group projects. Groups can be assigned a Topic page on the wiki and it's their job to flesh it out. Students can decide who will work on what part of the project, they will each create a rough draft, wait for feedback from the teacher, and then revise their section of the project wiki page. They could include images, maps, video, and audio as well. Students should work together to properly organize the finished page.
9) Homework: The Wiki can also be used to post reminders of when homework activities are due as well as other important deadlines and dates to keep in mind. If students are having fund raisers or other school related activities they might also post these on the Wiki as well. If you include a calendar on your Wiki you can have these dates highlighted or even displayed with times and locations written next to the date.
10) Good ol' Fashioned Q & A: A wiki could be a great place for an ELL student to post their questions so that if anyone else is having the same problem, but is too shy to ask, they can also see what their teachers and/or peers response was. This might even lead to additional related questions that also will need an answer, pretty soon you might have a whole conversation on your Wiki!
There are many many other uses for the Wiki when working with ELL students (and of course non ELL students as well). In fact, an entire book is dedicated to just this subject! It's called Empower English Language Learners With Tools From the Web by Lori Langer de Ramirez. Support your local library by borrowing it from them or, if they don't have a copy, request that they look into getting one. If you like it and think it might be a great addition to your personal library, you can get it at Amazon.
>.<
I am under the opinion that technology is often taken for granted when it comes to working with the ELL students of any grade. The only technology related item I have ever observed students using (besides their cell phones at the HS level) is the IWB (Interactive White Board for those who don't know the acronym). And while I love the IWB and have used it many times for various lessons, I find that we rely on it way too often. And when our ELL students do get to use computers or iPads in the classroom it is usually for playing games for the duration of the lesson. I find this disheartening since there is so much possibility here!
I thinks it's about time we helped our ELL students to spread their web-wings and take a try at the Wiki. Keeping a classroom ELL Wiki is a great way to allow students more productive time on the computer/iPad while also helping them to develop other skills such as writing and syntax. It will also give them the opportunity to create something meaningful that they can look at out outside of the classroom as well, if able. Can you imagine the pride a student would have if he or she went home and was able to bring up their own Wiki entry for their parents to see? Magnificent!
10 Specific Uses of the Wiki in ELL:
1) Online Glossaries: Imagine for a moment that you are an ELL student who is having a difficult time remembering how to use a certain word much less can recall its meanings. Now, imagine that all the student has to do is log onto the classroom wiki and click on the Glossary that other students in his/her classroom have taken the time to create just for this purpose, viola! Problem solved! I have a wonderful lesson plan in mind where students are each given 5 or 6 words from the lesson unit. They then look these words up and (using their own definition and example sentence) enter into the classroom Wiki for other students to view. This would give your students practice with using a dictionary to look up the meanings, as well as requiring them to do some creative thinking when making new sentences, additionally they get in some typing/computer practice.
2) Online Study Community: Picture a similar situation as above. This time your students are trying to study for an upcoming exam but are nervous and unsure of what they need to know or if they can even study so much in such a short time frame. For the ELL student in regular content classrooms this can be especially true! You can easily help your students (those who are in the same classes together) study for their exam by having each of them divide their study guide into halves amongst themselves, they will then focus on taking notes on that particular area and post them up on a Wiki page made for that subject. This way they can post and share notes, studying together without actually having to worry about meeting up in a physical location.
3) Constructive Criticism: The Wiki can also be a wonderful tool for receiving constructive feedback from your teacher and your peers. Imagine you are an ELL student who has just written a report for your history class but your worried about your spelling and sentence structure. You can easily post your paper, or the portions that you are worried about, onto the Wiki (either anonymously or not) for feedback and correction. This can easily be done with other subjects as well! For instance, let's say that you have an avid artist or poet who would like to get an opinion on a piece they just completed, or your writing a story and need help putting together a plot or developing a story character, post it on the Wiki! Of course, you should have rules put into place...we can go into that in another post.
4) Student Portfolio: With Authentic assessment gaining a foothold in the world of ELL teaching it makes sense that something like a Wiki would have wonderful use as a student portfolio! As mentioned in number 3, the Wiki is a place where students can upload their works for others to view and review, it can also be used to store these pieces after they have been revised. You can assign each student their own page where examples of their classwork (both on and offline) can be displayed. If your school is wired for this sort of thing they can keep the same page throughout their student careers, adding to as they progress towards graduation. Authentic assessment is especially important for ELL students as it takes the standpoint of displaying what the student is capable of by using real life examples of their own work, not just test scores.
5) Writing Prompts: The Wiki can be a wonderful way to create daily writing prompts for your students, this is especially useful when helping your ELL students develop not just their writing skills but also their writing styles! A new writing prompt can be posted by you, the teacher, and students will be required to respond to it in some way, either through prose or poem. For younger students you could allow them to post whatever they can so long as they post something, for older students you could make it more challenging by setting a word maximum or word limit. In this way you can keep track of how your students are developing in both their writing skill, spelling, and vocabulary usage. Vocabulary development is especially important for the ELL student, the more vocabulary exposure and use they have, the better!
6) Collective Database: Let's say your students are completing a unit on famous faces in history. You can group your students up and assign them a famous individual with whom they will focus. After researching this individual they will then create a Wiki page for that person to include all of their basic information as well as any interesting facts they found out about them. They can upload pictures, quotes, and video ( if it's within the schools AUP). The students should also be required to create a list of any books they read and include links to websites that they referenced when doing their research. Being able to find references is a skill that all students (not just ELLs) can use throughout their education.Now you should have a nice collection of biographies on your classroom wiki for everyone to view.
7) Correctional Officer: Let's say that your ELL students have mastered a particular grammar form or vocabulary list and now it's time to practice. The teacher should create a paragraph, using a particular grammar structure or set of vocabulary that they have been studying, that is being misused and/or misspelled in some way throughout. You then post this paragraph asking for help in correcting it. The students mission? To correct as many mistakes as he or she can find and then re-post the paragraph with the corrections. Each student should make their own post. The teacher will then post the correct version at the end of the week for students to check their work with. This activity can be especially motivating as they want to see if they can beat the teacher at her own game!
8) Project Collaboration: A Wiki can also act as a way to keep track of collaborative group projects. Groups can be assigned a Topic page on the wiki and it's their job to flesh it out. Students can decide who will work on what part of the project, they will each create a rough draft, wait for feedback from the teacher, and then revise their section of the project wiki page. They could include images, maps, video, and audio as well. Students should work together to properly organize the finished page.
9) Homework: The Wiki can also be used to post reminders of when homework activities are due as well as other important deadlines and dates to keep in mind. If students are having fund raisers or other school related activities they might also post these on the Wiki as well. If you include a calendar on your Wiki you can have these dates highlighted or even displayed with times and locations written next to the date.
10) Good ol' Fashioned Q & A: A wiki could be a great place for an ELL student to post their questions so that if anyone else is having the same problem, but is too shy to ask, they can also see what their teachers and/or peers response was. This might even lead to additional related questions that also will need an answer, pretty soon you might have a whole conversation on your Wiki!
There are many many other uses for the Wiki when working with ELL students (and of course non ELL students as well). In fact, an entire book is dedicated to just this subject! It's called Empower English Language Learners With Tools From the Web by Lori Langer de Ramirez. Support your local library by borrowing it from them or, if they don't have a copy, request that they look into getting one. If you like it and think it might be a great addition to your personal library, you can get it at Amazon.
>.<
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